Australia

Just listening to Josh Earl’s brilliant 100% Hits Vol. Pod podcast this morning (link to that is here: https://open.spotify.com/show/7iWBbmY9EbLAwLZLVYLf9u?si=6dfLxjtvRm-Oxs28LjxiWA) and this classic was the final song that he and Lizzy Hoo discuss. Banger.

This journal contains a store of fascinating new information.

Leschenault's original journal is a battered-looking object, a large notebook with torn cloth covers, muddy-brown in colour, with the words "Private journal" written on the front.

Leschenault contemplates the bleakest of fates for Indigenous Australians, before changing his mind: "But no, that can't be true, today governments are more enlightened, they will be just []". Leschenault also takes an interest in a marginal figure among the scientific staff, the teenage assistant gardener and former slave who was referred to by the derisive nickname Merlot.

The recently recovered journal traces Leschenault's travels over the course of two years but comes to an abrupt end in Sydney, at the half-way point of the expedition.

Energy companies be like:

• We need to ensure we price to stay in business, the profit margin is so thin
• We are going to see a record profit, shareholders!

These companies are criminals and should be in prison for crimes against humanity

Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe announces big changes to RBA board, including fewer board meetings a year, and press conferences after every meeting.

An RMIT University-led report, commissioned by RACE for 2030, assessed current challenges related to home thermal efficiency improvements.

The report recommends several priorities to help Australia reach its goal of net zero by 2050, such as improving how we build new homes and how households prioritise and undertake thermal upgrading of their homes.

While the introduction of the new seven-star energy efficiency building standards is a necessary step to improve new homes, Rajagopalan said more needs to be done during the design and construction stage of building to ensure each home is thermally efficient.

A potential solution was creating a "One-stop shop" on how to embark on retrofitting your home and the benefits of a thermally efficient home from verified sources.

• The linear economy of taking resources, making products, and disposing of waste is wasteful and unsustainable for housing. A circular economy can reuse materials and components.

• Modular, prefabricated homes made of recycled materials can be disassembled and reused instead of demolished. This reduces waste.

• Government incentives and policies like Buy Back Schemes can promote circular construction. There are some successful examples overseas.

• More research is needed into modular housing using sustainable materials like cross laminated timber. Lifecycle assessments help understand impacts.

• Transitioning to a circular economy for housing faces challenges like upfront costs and lack of demand. But it can provide affordable, sustainable homes if adopted more widely.

Victorian woman Kathryn Beaton says repeated, illegal denials of service from drivers refusing to allow her guide dog into their vehicles have left her effectively housebound.

Edited to add: "anxious and in tears" is some shit tier headline writing when the real problem is the loss of independence and freedom, and the hours she has had to spend waiting just to be actively discriminated against.

Privatised building inspections are a fucking disgrace. I didn't even realise there were no licencing requirements. I thought they had to be engineers at the very least.

Would you take a pay cut to work from home?

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett is proposing public servants who work remotely should be paid less than those that have no choice but to commute — such as nurses and teachers.

He explained his idea to Sammy J on ABC Radio Melbourne Breakfast.

EDIT - Here's the article in the Herald Sun they're referring to (unpaywalled): https://archive.is/20230711234402/https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/bid-to-have-employees-salaries-cut-if-they-work-from-home/news-story/6273dad7538f5485e182a6cd5e19cc92

Interesting article about a discovery that adds another piece to the puzzle about migrations that may have reached Australia.

The fossils uncovered in Tam Pà Ling Cave may potentially belong to the ancestors of Indigenous Australians, whose remains found in Australia predate the previously estimated timeframe of 50,000 years.

Thousands of years prior to the rise of modern humans as the dominant species on Earth, they inhabited a mountain peak in Laos.

Between 2009 and the present, a series of modern human fossils dating back 46,000 to 70,000 years have been uncovered in Tam Pà Ling, a cave located in northeastern Laos.

The skull fragment was determined to be between 67,000 and 73,000 years old, while the leg bone fragment belonged to an individual who lived approximately 68,000 to 86,000 years ago.

These findings indicate that modern humans may have inhabited Southeast Asia much earlier, between 68,000 and 86,000 years ago, than previously believed.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1328056

Gulp.

I’m curious how long central bankers will let this go on for before they begrudgingly admit that they got it wrong. For the sake of those already made homeless, ill or dead from the current inflation I hope the central banks aren’t wrong so that their suffering wasn’t for nothing.

Unsure if it's ok to promote here, but similar to /r/CarsAustralia, we have Cars in aussie.zone cars@aussie.zone

Feel free to join, contribute, and help grow this fledgling community.

Australians will soon be able to ban themselves from all online gambling companies in every state and territory using just one form, almost five years after legislation was introduced to parliament.

A national self-exclusion register for online gambling dubbed “BetStop” will be launched on 21 August, the federal government says. It will replace systems in the states and territories that have been criticised as ineffective as they do not cover all bookmakers

There’s also an anonymous opinion piece from an affected person here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/10/betstop-australian-anti-gambling-register?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

If you’re thinking “why can’t they just not gamble?” There’s also an excellent You Can’t Ask That episode about problem gamblers on iView (Season 2 if you’re looking for it).